In recent years, network operators have been increasingly adopting a cloud computing model which provides users with access to fully featured applications, to software development and deployment environments without needing to maintain large amounts of data at an end-user device. Furthermore, cloud computing allows network-accessible data storage and processing, again taking load away from the end-user device and into the network.
Service Layer Control (SLC) Aware services can be introduced using cloud computing. SLC Aware services are services in which nodes in the service network are aware of, for example, conditions in the Radio Access Network (RAN) and may adjust the service provided to the end user accordingly. SLC Aware services may also provide service related information to the RAN, so that the RAN may utilize this to achieve higher resource efficiency or other benefits. SLC Aware services therefore require some signalling between the service network and the RAN.
Charging in mobile networks is performed by different core network and service network nodes. Charging can be divided into online charging and offline charging, and is described in 3GPP TS 32.240. Charging may be volume based, time based or event based. Charging is initiated when a first packet arrives, and the usage is then measured according to the configured charging method. The GGSN (or PGW) initiates different types of Credit Control (CC) signalling towards the Online Charging System (OCS) at different actions, such as session request, service request and deletion of session. The GGSN (or PGW) receives a quota from the OCS and may need to request a further quota when the current quota for a UE (or subscription) is almost used.
Zero-charging mentioned above is a concept in which traffic passing through the GGSN or PGW is identified as belonging to a traffic flow that is not subject to a charge. An example of this is SLC Aware control signalling between the RAN and the service network. There is currently no way to achieve this.
Furthermore, a UE 1 is capable of using multiple simultaneous bearers in which different data flows to the same UE 1 use different bearers. These may require different processing. However, there is no mechanism for providing SLC Aware control signalling that can identify different bearers.